Life is making posting difficult but this should start me off again.
Lucia, the Mermaid Princess of the North Pacific Ocean, saved a boy seven years prior to the story from a deadly tsunami, entrusting him with her Pink Pearl. Present day and Lucia tracks down the boy she loves, a surfer named Kaito but unable to tell him the truth, Lucia must try and help him remember. Meanwhile water demons attack the Sea Worlds, so it's up to Lucia and her friends to gather the remaining mermaid princesses to summon Sea Goddess Aqua Regina to save the Kingdom. They do so by transforming into idols and singing away the evil.
Back in the past, this was a guilty pleasure, it's a novelty to watch these girls perform which gets better when going up against singing villains, in fact the villain songs made my car playlist. But now, it's worst than I remember.
There's only so much of the same set pieces I can stand, the series is notoriously long and can be an absolute slog to sit through, there's nothing particularly wrong with much else, the character arcs are well written along with the characters themselves being very joyful; the Orange Mermaid Princess especially noteworthy for her performance. It's just too long.
It was meant to have a dub and it is finished just never released, the network still has the footage locked up.
There is one dub that does make the series so much better and that's the Italian dub version. Italy have a good record for shojo series and they gave Mermaid Melody some much needed justice.
Final Verdict: it's fine but way too long for a series that has too many set pieces, could easily shorten to 26 episodes from it's 91. Italian dub does improve the show.
Again, I'm going off script but I found this anime interesting enough to review.
Cleopatra Corns is the young super rich CEO of the Corns Group, the financial powerhouse of the United States but Cleo is usually more interested in dressing up for lavish parties much to the chagrin of her secretary and friend Swen. But when trouble literally crashes into her penthouse, Cleo springs into action, defending maidens in distress from rival companies hoping to achieve world domination through any means whether it be civil war in Saudi Arabia over oil, stopping the creation of a satelite laser or rescuing an ESPer from being used for evil. Nothing is too much for Cleopatra DC who even adopts the girls she saves for her team.
This is surprisingly good; I compare it to a cartoon I watched over a year ago from the same era, Goldie Gold. While Goldie is horribly incompetent and should be dead if not for her absurd gadgets and wealth that is not possible in any form of media including fiction; Cleopatra knows what she's doing, even arranging a clever trap to outwit trained military soldiers; she's at least capable enough in combat to take out regular bad guy Colonel Karts on multiple occasions, is fully aware of the consequences of what happens if everything goes wrong, is surrounded by people who can do their job and she does all this with no ridiculous gadgets but knowing the right people to call and how to organize properly, you know like a proper Billionaire big boss should do!
Okay she still parties too much but she is still way better than any character who shares the same position.
No dub, I think it should be dubbed as it was set in America and was aimed at a Western audience.
Final Verdict: It's actually good. The art style is unique to it's era and very stylish and it shows phenomenal attention to detail in how the Corns Company operates. It relies a little too much on the "right place at the right time" trope but it's a minor nitpick.
This is a little off topic from Project 1000 but I've carefully watched the whole series and really want to sign this off.
Loosely based on real events, Wangan Midnight is about the rivalry between the Devil Z - A 70s Nissan S30Z and Blackbird - An 80s Porsche 911 made by RUF, along with many other drivers drawn into the world of highway racing.
The goal is simple but getting there requires a lot of work, for any car enthusiast, the intricate details that go into all the tuning is very insightful and adds so much weight to each battle.
Backed up by a soundtrack that creates an intense atmosphere particularly when Devil Z shows up to a theme of what can be best described as a demonic ritual.
It's easy to forget that the start of the anime painted the Devil Z as a cursed vehicle who killed all it's previous owners yet somehow still runs.
To really appreciate what messages the show speaks, it constantly switches between minor and supporting characters each with different lives, some are still in the racing world, some are drawn in, some are pulled out of retirement, some want nothing to do with it anymore; every decision that's made comes off the back of witnessing the Devil Z race as a passenger, mechanic or as the unfortunate racer beaten by it and Blackbird.
It's a carefully written story that shows how much the presence of a legendary vehicle can affect those in it's world in the pursuit of speed and the only ones who will understand this are car enthusiasts.
I do not know of a dub but it may not be a bad decision to have one knowing how much detail is described on the cars which is exhausting to read. Incidentally the franchise boasts a live action film and numerous arcade racers.
Final Verdict: This will do nothing for you if you don't like cars but for the avid petrol head, this is the best anime you can watch on cars, yes, even better than Initial D!
Gotta keep the pen moving when you get inspiration.
Azumanga Daioh is about the life and times of a group of High School girls going through the final years of School, the twist is that one of them is ten years old.
This one is less story driven more a simple selection of short scenes in which the cast find themselves in so it's important to know who these characters are.
Chiyo-Chan is the lead character and much of the series often bounces off her, it's not lost on the other cast members that she's not just a genius but also rich, it's also been suggested that Chiyo's Dad maybe a cat but only in the dreams of some.
Osaka is the slow one, she has an unusual way of thinking and the fact that she is from Osaka makes her the closest thing to a foreign exchange student. May also be autistic.
Tomo is loud, obnoxious and annoying, she's a bit much.
Yomi is the straight woman of the group, she can be seen as the audience surrogate to the antics, particularly Tomo.
Miss Sakaki with her build and aloof personality makes her the most popular girl in school by default but secretly likes cute things, much of her antics involve her trying to pet a cat that keeps biting her or hoping people don't think less of her for acting kawaii.
Kaorin is a few levels off full blown stalker as she has a major crush on Sakaki but is often dashed by Kimura.
Kagura is the athlete, yeah she has the weakest personality but it's okay.
Then the teachers with Miss Yukari being a big kid which seems to call me out more and more as I age.
Nyamo being the voice of reason for her students and seems to be the perfect foil for Yukari but even that backfires sometimes.
And finally Kimura who you wonder how he managed to get a job in a school let alone be married and father a daughter.
With a cast like that it's any wonder that this anime is well loved. It's genuinely funny, the characters balance nicely even if I don't like all of them and it's also quite moving as well. The final episode alone will leave you in tears.
If there is any criticism then it's the dub, it's not terrible and the actors do a good job but the sub is so much stronger that anything else makes the show weaker.
Final Verdict: A slice of life show worth it's weight in gold, you'll enjoy everything on offer here.
Let us continue with another action packed anime.
Ginji Amano and Ban Midou are the Get Backers, a duo specializing in retrieving lost and stolen property just to get paid enough money to live as they are constantly poor; they accomplish this with their selection of powers; Ban able to use the Jagan Eye - A much better written version of the Mangekyou Sharingan to trap people in illusion and a Snake Bite - A powerful ability capable of crushing levels of grip. Ginji on the otherhand is a lightning user.
Among their quest to complete jobs, a mysterious fortress keeps drawing the Getbackers in, as mysteries revolving around the pasts of Ginji and his allies deepen.
The first part where Ginji and Ban do missions on a episodic basis are fun, easy to digest and uncomplicated. Then the limitless fortress happens then it becomes needlessly complex, over reliance on the antagonist driving the plot and an ending that just breaks the story. So yeah, a tale of two halves and it's best moments come when Ban and Ginji are doing their jobs and not being dragged down by the over arching plot. Other characters follow a mixture of pleasant and annoying depending on tastes with MakubeX being the worst of the bunch.
Dub is pretty good but a couple of smaller roles can be accused of over acting.
Final Verdict: When done to a basic setup, Get Backers is a fun series, but when it has to shoehorn in it's plot, it falls apart faster than a biscuit dunked in tea.
